Enn á briósti breiða steina

Kommentar til en strofe i Þrymskviða

Abstract

The two Þrymskviða lines enn á briósti/ breiða steina have not hitherto been fully understood. Scholars have variously identified these artefacts as large beads, brooches with gems, and round stones as substitutes for breasts, but arguments in support of these readings have failed to convince. This paper argues that steina should be interpreted as beads rather than stones or gemstones, and that the overall expression means that the Æsir let “out-spread stones (in the sense of glass and semi-precious stone beads on strings) [be] on/across the chest”. This may be a reference to the strings of beads that hung between oval brooches in traditional Viking Age female attire. This explanation thus serves to some extent to reconcile two of the existing explanations.